RFID Gussied Up with Biosensors; SobigF Virus Traced to Korea; Spam-for-Money Plan Suspected by Expert on E-Mail Viruses; Three Plead Guilty in Jihad Conspiracy

RFID Gussied Up with Biosensors

According to a story on Wired.com, retailers and consumer packaged-goods companies have had to quietly dump efforts to implant radio frequency identification (RFID) technology into products or store shelves. (See the CSO column Guilty Until Proven Innocent on one of those uses.)The tiny radio transmitters let the companies precisely track the numbers and whereabouts of their inventory and consumers’ purchasing preferences, which worries many privacy advocates. But, as Wired.com reports, many companies are now combining the tags with sensors that can detect the presence of biological and chemical agents, or signal that a perishable item has expired. By doing so, they hope to gussy up the controversial technology as an essential terrorism-fighting tool. SobigF Virus Traced to KoreaKorea Times today, Koreas National Police Agency (NPA) yesterday said it is investigating an Internet protocol (IP) address there that may have had a role in the spread of the Sobig.F virus. The Cyber Terror Response Center within the NPA said it started the investigation at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI on Saturday. Korea Times reports that a 36-year-old office worker in Suwon, Kyonggi Province was found to be the user of the IP address but police said it is unclear whether he was directly involved as he seems to have no particular computer skills.

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Spam-for-Money Plan Suspected by Expert on E-Mail VirusesNew York Times outlines the investigation, and theories behind the motive and goals of the virus author.

Computer security experts and law enforcement officials are struggling to understand the motives of a mysterious software author who appears intent on prying open many of the electronic locks on the Internet. A story in todays

Three Plead Guilty in Jihad ConspiracyWashington Post, three men charged as part of a local jihad network have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and gun charges, with one admitting in federal court yesterday that he trained with firearms in Northern Virginia to prepare for a possible mission fighting for Muslims abroad. The admissions by the three men, who are all cooperating in the investigation, signal a significant victory for the Justice Department. Prosecutors have trumpeted the case as a key step in the war on terrorism and said the men were part of a conspiracy to support “violent jihad” overseas. They have presented no evidence that the men were plotting attacks in the United States.

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